New Brunswick Market hits stride in second year

By SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Managing Editor

NEW BRUNSWICK — In its second year, the New Brunswick Community Farmer’s Market, has been a “win-win for the community” according to its manager, and has grown in many ways over last year.
The market got its start last year when officials from Johnson and Johnson, Rutgers and around the community teamed up to create a market that would cater to city residents, especially the ethnic groups there and those residents who are near or below the poverty line. after an executive at Johnson & Johnson, who frequented the already established farmers’ market near Rutgers Gardens outside of the city teamed up with officials at Rutgers and other community partners.
A farmers’ market has already been running near Rutgers Gardens outside of the city, but its vendors generally had more high-end products.
The goal of the new market was to offer city residents a way to get affordable fresh local produce and other food products.
A property owned by Rutgers emerged as an ideal spot and “perfect for a farmers’ market,” Jaymie Santiago, program coordinator for the new market said.
The spot is a short walk to two bus lines and close to many residential areas of the city.
Vendors to the market must be from Middlesex County or within a 25 mile-radius of the market and agree to accept food stamp and Women Infant Children coupons.
The market also created a “buyback program” that ensures vendors a minimum of their product will be sold.
Last year, the market began with 11 vendors and averaged about eight through the season.
This year, Santiago said the market started with 15 vendors.
Along with a way to get local food to city residents, Santiago said the farmers’ market has become a way to educate people on a number of different areas, from nutrition to cooking and meal preparation to food safety.
St. Peter’s Hospital has conducted free health screenings for diabetes and high blood pressure during the market’s hours and leaflets, recipe cards and other information is widely available in English and Spanis to shoppers.
The market also partnered with Elijah’s Promise, a soup kitchen and non-profit culinary school which conducts cooking demonstrations at the market and also uses produce from the market in making its meals for the soup kitchen and other programs.
“It’s really turned into a community center,” Santiago said. “It’s really a win-win for the community. I’m really proud of that aspect of it.”
Reaching out to community groups often translates in more sales for vendors, Santiago said. One successful promotion last year was developing a church network.
Basically, if a customer mentioned to the vendor they were a member of a church in the network, the customer got  a discount on their purchase.
“The invitation is very powerful,” Santiago said. “You invite a group to come and they usually bring a crowd.”
This year, Johnson and Johnson made another big commitment to the market by paying for a 60 foot by 30 foot pavilion to go up at the market site.
Santiago said last year, it rained during almost half of the market days and the pavilion will essentially take rain out of the equation and move the market toward its long-term goal of being able to operate year-round.
Also new this year is an “idea garden” where kids can start plants of their own and care for them through the season and learn what it takes to grow food.
Customer feedback has been important and helpful in improving the market, Santiago added.
He said by doing quick response surveys they market staff learned that shoppers preferred coming later in the week, so they changed the market days from Tuesday and Friday to Thursday and Saturday.
Interacting with the shoppers has led to feedback for growers too. For instance, Santiago said a growing segment of the city is Oaxacan Mexican and they would seek out peppers that had cracked or looked “beat up” because that is what they claimed it was on the plant longer and had better flavor.
With a strong Mexican presence, Santiago said vendors soon found out that selling produce in designated containers rather than by weight helps get around much of the language barrier.